Soda Rock Winery, Alexander Valley

While most of the country is snow-packed, Northern California is enjoying unseasonably beautiful weather this winter (if you could call it winter). Yesterday we hit 80° breaking the 71° record of 2001. Typically during the months of January and February we get ten inches of rain, but it doesn’t appear we will get anywhere near those levels this year. With the rain’s absence, the sun has even tricked the magnolia, cherry, and plumb trees into blossoming early.

On such a nice day, Marilyn and I were unable to stay indoors and headed out to Alexander valley, one of the most beautiful places around and is located just a few minutes away by car. We stopped by the Jimtown store to buy a sandwich (turkey with garbanzo bean chipotle sauce on a french roll) for a picnic. From there we drove about a mile down the road and pulled into Soda Rock winery for a relaxing afternoon. While there, I sketched the road we drove in on. The old oak barrel beside the road is no longer used for making wine but makes a good sign to attract attention to the winery.

Sonoma Coast, California

The WorldWideSketchCrawl 30 was today and My wife and I drove out to the Sonoma Coast for inspiration, food, and fun in the sun. Northern California is a great place to live because every year in January we get a mid-winter break from the cold and rain. Today the Temperature was in the low 70’s and there was barely a breeze. Even at the coast, the weather was terrific. No Jackets required.

Along the way, we had lunch in Guerneville at a restaurant called Boon. We chose seats out on the patio to enjoy the view and weather. I ordered boon burger with grass fed beef, fiscalini aged white cheddar + wild arugula on a toasted milk bun with house-made parmesan herb chips for only $11. Marilyn ordered a wild arugula salad with fennel, lemon vinaigrette + shaved vela dry jack ($8). We shared. We laughed. We had a great lunch. Now if we could only get them to turn the music of Nirvana down a notch or two . . .

After our leisurely lunch we landed at Goat Rock beach along California’s Sonoma Coast. We were able to take off our shoes, walk in the grass, and let our minds drift in and out with the tide. I painted two watercolors. What a great way to spend a Saturday. Can we do it again tomorrow?

New Messenger Bag to Hold My Art Supplies

For Christmas I put a STM messenger bag on my wish list and thanks to my mother-in-law, I got what I wanted. I don’t often ask for things sight unseen but the reviews for this bag were excellent and I had a good feeling about it too. Well, today I received the bag and so far I love it. My art supplies fit perfectly. I also like that it only has one clip on the main flap (no velcro!) which it makes it easier to open. A pocket (with velcro) located inside the bag is perfect for protecting my iPad and sketchbooks. Overall, the bag seems to be well made and the stitching should hold it together pretty well.

Don’t I already own a messenger bag to hold all my art supplies, you ask? Well yes, I do own a large Timbuk2 bag that worked great when I went to Greece last year but I find it too big for a day out sketching close to home (click here to see a drawing of my Timbuk2 bag). Now I’m more exited than ever to hit the road and find a cool place to draw once the weather improves. Rain, rain go away . . .

Marilyn Reading on a Rainy Autumn’s Night

My wife Marilyn loves to read. Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, she’s always interested in a good story. Reading she says, helps calm her active mind and allows her to relax. I love reading books too and on a rainy day like today, cozying up with a good book is pure pleasure. Today I picked the book George Seurat, The Drawings off the shelf and thumbed through it for the hundredth time. I admire Seurat’s drawings for the way he works with light and shadow, composition, and mood. His drawings have a quiet, almost meditative spirit with a touch of melancholy.

Inspired by Seurat’s beautiful drawings, I decide to try his technique for myself. After returning from my studio with a conté crayon and some laid paper, I search the house for a subject that will work well with high contrast lighting. In the living room I find Marilyn reading on the couch with a floor lamp illuminating her book in the near darkness. After setting up my art supplies, a couple of hours pass like minutes. I have forgotten how much I enjoy drawing Marilyn and I hope I’ll have the opportunity to do so more often. There’s nothing better than drawing on a rainy, near winter’s night, especially if someone special is nearby.

The Pacific Coast Air Museum

The H-34 Choctaw Helicopter on the field at the Pacific Coast Air Museum.

A few days before Halloween, the Sonoma Sketches met at the Pacific Coast Air Museum for a morning of sketching. The museum is located right next to the Charles M. Schulz Airport. One of the old planes had been converted in to a haunted house, errr haunted plane and terrible halloween music filled the air.

I was a little disappointed to find mostly military air crafts and hardly any old prop planes in the mix but there was plenty to draw so over all I was happy.

Drawing of the HU-16E Albatross along with a fire engine.

Santorini Sunset

Walking along a courtyard located on the ridge of the caldera in Fira, I find several brightly colored, free-standing doors that have a surreal presence. At first glance, they look like gateways opening up to the sea far below. Each door is uniquely designed and painted. I enter through one and see steps descending to a terraced restaurant below. A menu listing mouth-watering entrees catches my eye, but the prices make me step back.

After Finding a place to sit on the edge of the caldera overlooking the sea, I watch the setting sun display deep oranges, reds, violets—a rainbow of color. Surprisingly, few people are here to take in this magnificent sight. Not far behind me, a jazz saxophonist sets up and begins playing old standards in a slow tempo, perfectly fitting my mood.

I wonder at the improbability of my presence here. It’s the one place I’ve always wanted to be. This moment, as fleeting as it is, is real. As real as the sea breeze. But somehow it feels more like a memory, rather than an event happening now. It’s similar to the feeling I experience looking through some of my old paintings. They are a window to my past, a record of what I saw, what I felt, and who I was at that time. Someday, I’ll rediscover the paintings I’ve created here in Greece buried in my studio, relics of my own life long past.

Map of the Greek Mainland

While it was difficult for me to believe that only a week had past while traveling around the mainland of Greece, It wasn’t hard to recognize how much fun I was having drawing and painting. My only regret was not having enough time to stay a night in Thebes as well as Sounion. Both cities looked interesting enough to spend a day exploring and finding places to draw and paint.

Hotel Klytemnestra, Mykines, Greece

From Eleusis, we travel west along the Isthmus of Corinth, pass over the Corinth canal, and on to the Peloponnese peninsula, which is a huge landmass shaped like a maple leaf. After exiting the main highway, we make a few wrong turns and end up in the middle of nowhere. Using our map, we negotiate the back roads and finally make it to Mykines, the town closest to the ruins of Mycenae, late in the afternoon. The sun, having sunk low in the sky, casts lengthy shadows across the town’s deserted streets. There’s not a person in sight. The businesses look closed too. What a mysterious place. Have we landed on Mars? Where are all the people? But as we pull into the parking lot of Hotel Klytemnestra, a jolly, grey-haired man steps out to welcome us and relieves my fears of Martians. My dad stayed at this family-run hotel sixteen years ago, and it appears that little has changed.